Selling an eCommerce site can be a great way to extract value from it if you’re ready to move on or feel like the time is right. It can also be a good option if you’re noticing that the winds are changing in your industry. If you want to get the most value for it, however, and plenty of offers, you have to plan your exit strategy correctly. There are plenty of things that you can do before putting your eCommerce site up for sale that will make it much more attractive to buyers. Here’s how you can create a solid exit strategy for your eCommerce business.
See if Your Site Has Actual Value
You can’t sell just any eCommerce business; your business needs to turn a significant profit first. Some eCommerce businesses are practically unsellable too, such as businesses in controversial sectors, or those who are in an industry that’s in a rapid and steep decline.
If you’re involved in a business that sells flavored e-liquid for vapers, for instance, you can’t expect sellers to go crazy for it when considering the looming ban on these products. So, you will need to look if any deal-breakers could make your business difficult or impossible to sell.
If you believe that your site is sellable and you’re turning a profit, you will need to correctly determine earnings. Most eCommerce businesses are valued based on a multiplier of their income, so, the cleaner your books are, the easier your site will be to value.
How easy will it be to transfer the site over to a new owner? A new buyer won’t want to spend months trying to figure out how the site works or get to grips with the back-end processes. A site built on a recognized e-commerce platform like Shopify or Big Commerce will be more attractive to buyers.
If there are any possible dealbreakers that might prevent a sale from completing, do your best to fix them. Obviously, if the fact you sell a controversial product is the potential dealbreaker, it will be hard to fix the issue, but most other things can be addressed.
The next stage is to work through a list of fixes. Look at each fix and decide how much it will cost to implement, as well as how much value it will add to the site. You don’t necessarily need to add an actual price tag to the fix; simply deciding whether it’s a high-value or low-value change is sufficient.
Start with the low-cost changes that offer high value and work down the list. If you don’t have much time or a low budget, these are the fixes that offer the best bang for your bucks.
Changes worth making include the following:
Improve Your Site’s SEO
The more traffic a website receives, the better. One of the best things that you can do before selling your website is to increase the amount of organic traffic it gets, and the best way to get sound organic traffic is through SEO. If you know that you’ve been slacking on that front, now is the perfect time to ramp up your efforts, even if it means paying for it. Working with an SEO professional in the short term is an investment, but depending on the potential value of the site, it could be an investment worth making. After all, you sometimes have to spend money to make money, and an SEO professional will likely be able to achieve faster results than you in the short term.
If you have a blog and it’s been neglected, get back on a regular content creation schedule. Consider hiring a team to create content for you and have it featured on the right outlets. Guest posting is a useful way to build solid backlinks.
Get active in your community to boost brand mentions and tighten up your on-page SEO. Work on your site’s social media presence, as this will also improve website traffic. An e-commerce site will be more attractive to potential buyers if it has a strong brand presence online, with a lot of social media followers and likes.
Give Your Site a New Look
Now would also be a good time to improve your site’s overall design and performance. A better-performing site will not only offer a better user experience and make a good impression on buyers but it will also benefit your SEO.
Start by looking at how fast your site loads. If the loading times are too slow, see if you can switch the format of the images or compress them to a smaller size. Try different color palettes for your website and perform A/B testing to see which ones are performing better.
You could also see if you can change your calls to action and if you can reduce abandonment rates on your shopping cart.
Consider switching to a different theme, to improve how the site looks and performs.
Go through all your site’s content. Correct typos and poorly written copy, as this will detract from the site as a whole. Check for duplicate content, especially in product descriptions, to ensure there are no plagiarism issues. Upload better images of your products to give sales a boost.
These are all small changes that could add up and make a significant impact on your sales and your site’s value.
Consider Delaying the Sale
You should know that age is a major determinant of a site’s value. If your site is only a few months old, it will be hard to demonstrate that its revenue is sustainable. If the site is less than a year old, adding at least a year of steady revenue will make a huge difference in how much you can sell it for.
These are all things you should consider doing before selling your website. You should also think about hiring a broker if you haven’t already as it will facilitate the process and possibly get you better offers.
